Gilding (3)
"……."
I kept my poker face and tilted my head ever so slightly to one side, making it plain that I had no idea what she was talking about.
"The results, you mean?"
Fortunately Zinor had already said something similar; had this been the first time I heard such a claim, I would have been thoroughly shocked by now. In a way, that earlier conversation had served as a kind of preventive inoculation for me.
Serpina, however, only found my expression all the more amusing. Once again a soft curve formed at the corner of her lips.
……She really was extraordinarily beautiful. Honestly, I wanted to congratulate my own reason for not falling for a woman of her caliber. I swear there is not a single shred of exaggeration in that statement.
"Whether you are naturally putting on an act or truly do not understand…… I will admit it. Reading your expression is harder for me than any other task."
Serpina was a truly mysterious person. Other figures—Lin Brans, for instance—had been a lord who displayed a similar manner of speech and bearing. Had Lin treated me that way, it would have been pure torment, and I was certain I would not have been the only one to feel so. Yet with Serpina I felt none of that aversion. Instead I found myself drawn into her rhetoric. Before I knew it I would realize she was being engraved into one corner of my heart after another. Most importantly—that fact did not particularly leave me feeling bad.
"Regarding the first rebel army, I vaguely assumed you must have known internal information. Once the tail of rebels who had snuck in like rats was stepped on, catching them all was never difficult. I do not know whether you remember the Opinion Proposal Meeting, but since rebels were hiding there, it was not strange that you changed the subject, was it? As for the matter involving Jennis—he was your roommate, so if you caught the scent you could track it well enough. How you caught that scent remains a question, yet…… it is not something that exists in the realm of the 'impossible'."
"But gradually your 'advice' began to apply even to matters no single person could possibly know. Refusing several alliances and specifically choosing to ally with the Brans Army, or the fact that going to the Brans Army to form an alliance would place my life in danger—those are things I believed could never be deduced from 'information' alone. How could one know whether the Brans Army would come or not right away?"
"……."
"So at first—I thought you might be seeing the future."
Serpina's golden eyes sparkled as she spoke.
Seeing the future. Because one can see the future, one naturally knows the results of how things will turn out—Zinor had also believed I could see the future back then. Since Zinor already knew through his adopted daughter Reika that "magic" truly existed, such an inference had been inevitable.
Up to this point she had been speaking with the same logic as Zinor—
"But. If I assume you see the future, there are more than one or two strange points."
My gaze was stolen once again by her moist lips. Perhaps from the very moment I had kissed her, my soul had been somewhat captured by her…… I felt my heart tickling.
"In the first place, if you can see the future there is no need to speak in circles—you could simply play the role of a prophet, could you not? There would be no need to add phrases such as 'there is a high possibility' or 'it is estimated that,' as you did just now. Yet you never speak with certainty in any sentence except those concerning the results. Yes. At that point, Swen, I felt that your position and mine were not so different—in the sense that we both reason about the question of 'why does such a result come about?' And—"
"When giving decisive advice…… Swen, a look of surprise would flash in your eyes for a moment. No matter how I looked at it, that did not seem like the appearance of someone who knows the future and prophesies it. Rather…… it would be more accurate to say that only in that moment did you grasp how things would turn out."
"!!!"
In that instant Serpina whispered again, a smile once more at her lips.
"What a cute expression, Swen. Yes. Just like now. Fufufu……♥"
—Serpina had taken one step further than Zinor. She had drawn closer than anyone else to my essence, the ability of Intelligence 100.
Serpina's in-game stats were S-rank without question. Yet I truly had not expected her insight to be this outstanding. After all, her Intelligence was lower than Zinor's 99. Of course her overall status sum was far superior…… but in this world "intelligence" was converted into the Intelligence stat.
She really was an amazing woman—Serpina. To still maintain overwhelming national power despite so many rebellions occurring across the northern continent made me realize that was not something just anyone could do.
And she quietly watched my expression as I remained silent after hearing the question, smiling for several minutes……
"Swen. As I said, there is no need to answer whether my words are correct. I will not force an answer from you. Whatever ability it may be, seeing that you have not told me, I believe there must be a reason. And I know that more than half of my story is the kind of inference fantasists who rely too heavily on records close to ancient myths would make."
"……."
"So just think of this matter as my childish whim and listen. And……."
And with her pure white hand, Serpina slowly stroked my cheek as if caressing it.
"If, as I think, you can only grasp the results, then you have walked alone across a swaying bridge dozens of times until now. In a situation where you know only the results, the advice you gave to Lin and to Yuuri must have vanished into the air like echoes without ever being accepted. Even if later the results proved your words correct, well…… I do not know whether they possessed the capacity to accept such a bizarre ability."
"……."
"There must have been no one who understood that heart. Were you not very lonely?"
Feeling her touch, I met her eyes. Her voice and her eyes as she spoke…… were trembling slightly.
"I too was lonely, so I know well. Carrying a fact you cannot tell anyone…… advancing alone is an extremely solitary thing."
"Lady Serpina……."
"That is why I worry for you, Swen. You may call this meddling if you wish, but still, you are…… quite a special existence to me."
I had not thought of myself as lonely, yet it had been frustrating, I suppose. Rather, I was more worried about her.
It seems she is carrying something she cannot tell anyone alone.
That was why she could say such things. The fragile precariousness I sometimes felt from her when the absolute ruler's charisma was stripped away—was it because of the weight of something she carried? As I thought that…… before I knew it I found myself growing languid from her voice.
"……Swen."
"Please speak."
She slowly stepped back from me, then spoke in a somewhat calmer tone.
"If you truly can only know the results as I said, then this time I would like you to listen to my opinion."
"The decision-maker is always the lord. I merely give advice. How could I dare decide whether to accept the lord's opinion or not? And…… as for words about knowing the results, honestly I do not really understand. I am merely an ordinary strategist who makes inferences based on the current situation and past situations."
"For a man who drops boulders by holding a ritual to the heavens, that is an extremely humble answer, is it not?"
"It is merely a trivial skill of reading the movements of the stars."
"Is that so?"
Serpina laughed as if amused. Since I could not break my promise with Luna by being swayed by hormones here, I had replied appropriately. At my words she smiled faintly, then changed the subject and brought up the main point.
"I believe the rebel army will raise their heads."
The possibility was low, yet as she said, since I ultimately only reason by looking at results—I could not firmly deny that it would not be so.
"Of course the basis for judgment is only your advice that 'it is not appropriate to move the occupation forces.'"
"……."
"What do you think?"
I bowed my head deeply and said,
"There is nothing to think about, my lord. If my lord decides, I will simply follow."
"I see."
Did she have some source I did not know that made her certain a rebellion would occur? She sat upon the throne and had fought the ghosts of her brothers many times; perhaps her intuition regarding that was strongly developed. In any case…… as it had always been, ultimately everything was a matter for the lord to decide, not the strategist.
"Swen. As I said, I have no intention of forcing an answer. I like you very much. I do not want to poke at what you wish to hide and create a fuss. You may speak when you wish, or never speak of it in your life. Completely unrelated to that, I will always believe and trust you. And without fail—"
Her face came right up to my ear. Along with the fragrant yuzu scent, her bright yellow hair tickled my cheek.
"I will obtain your heart."
……Ah.
"Did I not say? Leaving the lord-subject relationship aside, the current me is nothing more than a mere woman who wants to look good in your eyes. Fufufu……♥"
Looking at her face, flushed red as she gazed at me lovingly, I realized.
This is dangerous.
Really.
I am not joking…… my heart was truly about to waver. My heart pounded without rest. The inevitable chemical action of hormones was violently shaking my mind.
……Get a grip.
I repeated those words, yet I could not deny that I myself felt a strong attraction to her. Of course her feminine charms—the yuzu scent that made one feel good when close, the two eyes shining like gold, the pure white skin, the large breasts showing tremendous presence inside the officer's uniform, or the voice that made one languid—all were attractive, but those were not the decisive part of this attraction I felt.
The glass-like delicacy visible beyond what seemed strong at a glance. I was so concerned about that…… that I ended up thinking I wanted to protect her by her side.
This was the first time.
——Thinking that I sincerely wanted to protect a lord other than Lady Luna.